Baby Update: Week 37

This week was quite different from most! I had two experiences I never anticipated! Well, one experience and somewhat of a decision we had to make.

Here's the experience...
I was on my way to sub last Tuesday and stopped off at Starbucks to buy a venti caramel apple spice. I rarely go to Starbucks and even more rare is ordering a venti! I happened to have my free birthday coupon from October that was soon to expire. On this bitter cold morning, I figured it was the best time to use it. I arrive at the school 30 minutes before school starts and grabbed everything I needed from my car. About 20 feet from the door of the school, I slipped on black ice (I did mention is was definitely in the 20's with a wind-chill, right?) and landed right on my bottom. You can imagine where my drink ended up... all over the place. Frustrated, I headed into the school knowing I was probably going to be leaving immediately. I let the secretary know that I couldn't stay and had to go to the hospital. At 37 weeks, that's not something to take lightly. I called Ray and he met me at the hospital. I was just so frustrated because my bottom didn't even hurt, my drink was gone, I lost out on a sub day (which are about to end completely soon, along with that extra cashflow), I left my delicious lunch at the school, I inconvenienced the school who had to find another sub with 20 minutes left until school began, and to top it off, I had to spend 2 hours at labor and delivery! Who knows what that bill is going to look like when it arrives...

I was hooked up to a fetal monitor for 2 hours and listened to Baby W's heartbeat the entire time. It was fairly steady around the 130's until he moved-- then it jumped between 150-160 every time. Ray stayed with me and got a bit of a taste of what it's going to be like in just a few weeks. When I was done, the nurse said she read a few contractions, but at this point in my pregnancy, that is completely normal and not the effect of a fall. I was discharged and carried on with my day.

The next piece of weekly news is the decision we had to make. I was scheduled to see the doctor yesterday and not looking forward to the waiting room. Every time I am scheduled to see this particular woman, it takes forever to be seen! I usually wait over an hour in the waiting room for her. She is also the one of the four doctors in the practice that is the "celebrity" of the group. She delivers all the high-risk, scheduled multiples births, and is known in the area for being that doctor. You can almost never get a new patient appointment to see her unless you are already seeing another doctor more exclusively in the practice. Since it is uncertain of which doctor will be on-call the day I deliver, they schedule me to see all of them at times during my monthly/weekly checkups. I saw two other doctors the last two weeks and this week was her turn. Having been breech and given ultrasounds the last two weeks in a row, I thought this week would be no different. The waiting part was dead-on. I had to wait forever. When she came in, she also recorded that the baby was still breech (which we also knew going in) but then asked if I would consider an external version. I was shocked to hear this! We went into this appointment thinking they would automatically schedule me a c-section and just hope for the best when it came to his positioning. That was the only way we saw getting out of the c-section. She didn't even mention the word! She told me she was on-call Sunday and that she would gladly attempt the version if we were interested. She weighed the pros and cons of the procedure (concern of placenta separating from the uterus or going into active labor) but also said that in her 23 years of doing ev's, she has never seen that happen. Well, I believe she said one woman went into immediate labor after, but that's better than the placental separation. So, we agreed to go ahead with it. We scheduled the procedure for 10 a.m. tomorrow (Sunday, November 28th) and walked out. If it doesn't work and he still doesn't turn, we have a scheduled c-section. If it does work or he turns at a later date, we're going natural. I know the procedure is painful, but I'm willing to give it a shot for the potential to avoid the awful c-section recovery! The stat I was given: there's about a 30% chance it will work since it works best on people who've already been pregnant (= stretched uterus more pliable and mine isn't). She also said, though, that since he is quite high in my belly that it may be a better chance for me than another first-pregnancy candidate. Considering I was given a 25% chance he'll move on his own, I will at least increase the probability a bit more and do everything we can.

As for the rest of the baby updates...

How far along?: 37w4d
How big is Baby?: Baby W can be anywhere between 5.5-7 pounds at this point. All estimates, of course. I'm about 2 days away from viability, where the baby can be born at any time without any risk of complication or underdevelopment.
Maternity clothes?: Yes, and I hate them. Loathe. Can't wait for my other clothes to fit again.
Sleep?: I slept amazing last night thanks to the humidifier and lots of lotion. For the most part, I've been sleeping erratically, but I was happy to have a great night's rest.
Best moment of the week?: The whole week was wonderful. We spent Thanksgiving with our friends, Jim, Kristi, and Joel along with their families. Ray and I are in the midst of 4 days off together which is such a blessing to have right before chaos hits (aka having our first baby!). Sure, it will be chaos, but also a precious time in our lives we will only share together.
Movements?: Yes, he moves. A lot, and often. While we were playing games with about about 15 friends last night, and all of them witnessed Baby W moving violently in my belly. He can be quite entertaining. :)
Food cravings?: I've been wanting pizza this week more than usual... though I haven't actually had any. Haha.
Aversions?: I wouldn't say so, except that I don't feel in the mood for leftovers lately
What I miss?: See maternity clothes and sleep.
What I'm looking forward to?: Tomorrow's procedure being over. I want it to happen but I want even more for it to be over so we have a general idea of the next proceedings. Will be be having a c-section, or not?
Anything else?: Nope. Most websites are saying he's fully cooked at this point and can come at any time.
This week in history: The full-body scans and pat-downs at airports are causing lots of issues with TSA and travelers.
What's going on this week (with us)?: I mentioned a few things... but we've been spending a lot of time this week just getting little things done for Baby W. We bought some items and did the laundry of baby clothes, blankets, etc. We're now working on odds and ends that are on our to-do list for this long weekend. We've cleaned the house really well since there is a potential that tomorrow's procedure could be the day for us. Doubtful, but we aren't taking any chances of coming home to massive amounts of dust bunnies. Of course that means I'll probably be doing another deep clean before the baby actually does come, but at least we utilized our time well. We headed out last night after bundling ourselves up in a bunch of layers to see the Naperville parade through downtown. After, we had cider and headed to the Grounds for Hope Cafe to play games with a bunch of friends.

I'll update if the external version was a success, or not after tomorrow's procedure! Turn, baby, turn!